The Tai Ethnic Migration and Settlement in Myanmar

SAI AUNG TUN
Yangon University

 

Introduction

I would like to express my thanks to the organizers of the Yunnan Institute for Nationalities, China and the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, Kyoto University, Japan for making the necessary arrangements to enable me to attend the Kunming International Workshop on the "Dynamics of Ethnic Cultures Across National Boundaries in Southwestern China and Mainland Southeast Asia: Relations, Societies and Languages."

Human migration from one region to another is known to have taken place since time immemorial. Even after "national" boundaries appeared in history, the migration process remained an on-going one, and the trends of human migration have continued to the present time, gathering momentum and involving large numbers of people at certain times more than others. In some places ethnic crossings over national boundaries become serious problems and disputes over such issues are common between adjacent countries. Today any ethnic problem occurring along a border can precipitate an international crisis, which may need either a short or a long term solution.

Ethnology has also become a subject of study for scholars of international relations. Words such as ethnic identity, ethnic adaptation, ethnicity, ethnic politics, ethnic consciousness, ethnocentrism, ethnic discrimination, ethnic conflict, ethnic attachment, ethnic ideology, ethnic aspects, ethnic responses, ethnic issues, ethnic plurality, ethnic relations, ethnic misunderstanding, multi-ethnic problems, ethnogeny and ethnography have become catch-words of the ethnologists in their dealings with ethnic issues in our international setting.

In some countries, national governments have explicitly provided in their Constitutions certain provisions, regulations, and laws regarding the rights and roles of ethnic minorities. Assurances and guarantees are given for the promotion and preservation of their cultures, languages, customs, traditions and beliefs. Usually, boundaries and areas that we call ethnic autonomy, ethnic centers, ethnic zones, ethnic belts, or ethnic communities are demarcated by national governments with the intention of having harmonious relationships among ethnic nationalities. Opportunities are also provided to ethnic nationalities to participate in local administration, in the management of national development projects and in the defense of sovereignty. In some countries provided with such assurances and guarantees, ethnic peoples co-exist peacefully and have cordial relations with each other. But in other places, racial prejudices are so deep-seated and socio-religious differences so great that conflict has occurred, quarrels have developed into armed clashes and ethnic cleansing, leading to loss of lives and property, and upheavals on a large scale. Such unrest and violent outbreaks have led to renewed ethnic migrations from one region to another and across national boundaries.

Activities along the National Border

Due to the physical nature of the terrain, proper security and control cannot be maintained along some borders. Thus, along with the migration, many illegal activities develop and flourish, such as smuggling and illicit trade in arms, drugs, jade, antiques , timber and prohibited herbs. Such trans-borders criminal activities do not offer any benefits to the majority of the ethnic people of the border regions and create an unhealthy atmosphere at the regional and global levels. Certain modernization activities - such as the building of new infrastructure, the development of rising new industries in ethnic regions, and cross-border trade and tourism - also pose a threat to ethnic communities if national governments and international agencies do not base them on knowledge and understanding of the ethnic peoples and their situation. It is therefore high time that the ethnic peoples living in the frontier areas be thoroughly studied with regard to their culture, language, literature, customs, traditions and beliefs and also their role in nation building, past and present. They should not just be left in isolation to be exploited by unregulated economic activities, influenced by alien cultures, put at risk for diseases such as HIV/AIDS, and otherwise open to a host of external factors which could disturb the social stability of the ethnic peoples and affect the sustainable human development in these areas.

The wind of globalization is blowing, and as it gathers more force it could disturb the tranquility of the ethnic regions to bring about a deterioration of their national environment and an erosion of their values and heritage. The ethnic peoples are not yet adequately prepared for the consequences of globalization and the question is therefore who will help them face up to the challenges of globalization.

Ethnic Groups in Yunnan and Myanmar

The regions of Southwestern China and mainland Southeast Asia have been settled by many ethnic peoples since ancient times. Their history has been marked by struggles, wars, alliances, the creation and disintegration of their Baans (villages), Mongs (city-states), kingdoms and empires, and the efforts to re-create new ones in new lands. Some ethnic groups succeeded in creating highly organized kingdoms and empires, but others failed and, abandoning their old settlements, continued their migration south- and southeastward. Their migration was sometimes gentle, sometimes forceful depending on the pressures from new emigrants and the conflicts that took place among themselves. Those who picked hilltops and deep valleys for their settlements and were cut off and isolated from their parent stock became in the process of time a new ethnic group with a distinctive culture of their own, their linguistic affiliation later to be established by linguists and philologists. They survived on a simple sustainable type of economy and came to have new local names.

Yunnan, where numerous ethnic peoples make their homeland, is situated in southwest China, bounded on the north by Sichuan and Sizang (Sikang), on the east by Guizhou and Guangxi, on the south by Vietnam and Myanmar, and on the west by Myanmar and Assam. It is extremely mountainous with only a limited area of level plains. It is furrowed by the Taiping, Shweli, Salween, Mekong, Black and Red rivers.

The Salween and the Mekong are rivers of great length, having their sources in the interior part of Tibet, and flowing through Yunnan and the neighboring lands of Myanmar, Laos, Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. The basins of these rivers and their tributaries form deep, narrow valleys which, with the high parallel mountain ranges running generally north and south, constitute a favourable home for numerous ethnic minorities. Yunnan shares a long common border with Myanmar and many ethnic groups that live in Yunnan can also be found in Myanmar. For example, the following ethnic nationalities, among many others, are common to both Yunnan and Myanmar:

Linguistically these ethnic peoples belong to three families: Mon-Khmer, Tai, Chinese and Tibeto-Burman.

Migration and Settlement of Tai Ethnic Groups

Like many other ethnic peoples the Tai once had their homeland in China. Some historians believe that the Tai people first came to settle north of the Yellow (Huang Ho) river, occupying the region known as Hebei and Shanxi round about 2515 B.C. The Chinese annals also mention Tai settlements in the middle basin of the Yellow River in 850 B.C. They made their homeland here for a long time, establishing small feudal kingdoms and spreading their "Na" culture to neighboring regions. But new emigrants coming from Central Asia later impelled the Tai and other ethnic groups to move southwards to new fertile areas between the Yellow and Yangtze (Chang Jiang) rivers covering the present provinces of Hunan and Hubei.

With the Yellow River in the north and the Yangtze River in the south as their natural boundaries, the Tai and other ethnic peoples felt safe, and rebuilt their feudal kingdoms and erected their "Na" which lasted for several centuries. However, another wave of emigrants from the north, which became powerful and aggressive, put new pressure on the Tai ethnic group. With inter-state rivalries and an inability to establish unity, the Tai and ethnic people of the south were unable to resist the intrusion from the north, and split up into numerous groups. Some took refuge in the neighboring hills and valleys of Sichuan, Guizhou and Yunnan, where they picked up new local names which concealed their identity and turned themselves into little-known hill tribes of the region, remaining obscure for centuries. Other Tai groups who were displaced by the new immigrants migrated into Honan to Hubei, and crossing the Yangtze river, fanned out in different directions to settle in Hunan, Guangxi, Guangdong, Hainan, Vietnam, Laos, Thailand, Myanmar and Assam.

The central point of my paper here is to trace the routes of migration of the Tai people and their areas of settlement in Myanmar. The Tai in Myanmar are known to the Myanmar people as Shan, to Kachins, A-ch'angs, Zis and La-shis as Sam, to the Ma-ru as Sen, to the Palaung as Tsen, to the Wa as Shem and to the Talaing or Mon as Sem and to the Yunnanese as Pai-Yi. But they themselves like to be called "Tai." The Shans are the most widespread ethnic people in Myanmar, being found in every region. Their Baan or Maans (villages), Mongs (city-states) and settlements stretch from the northernmost region of Hkamti Long down to Taninthayi in the south, and from the eastern tip of Kengtung to Hsawng Hsup and Ta-mu to the west. In central Myanmar their settlements and communities can be found around Ava, Pinya, Sagaing, Taungoo, Phyu, Pyinmana and Pyay.

As to when exactly the Shans entered Myanmar, scholars have different views. Some believe that the migration of the Shans into Myanmar started 2000 years ago citing three reasons: first, their restless character which prompted them to find new lands to settle; second, their warlike character; and third, the pressure of new invasions from the north, such as those of A.D. 78 and A.D. 1253.

Most Shan chronicles say that a big wave of Shan migration took place in the 6th century A.D., the Shans moving from southern Yunnan into the Nam Mao valley and adjacent regions and establishing many Mongs, among them Bhamo, Mong Mit, Hsipaw, and Hsenwi. Making these places their first homeland in Myanmar, they spread out over the whole of the Shan State, establishing more Mongs and Kengs (towns) like Mong Naung, Mong Nang, Mong Hsu, Mong Kung, Mong Keshi-Mansam, Mong Laihka, Mong Nai, Mong Pan, Mong Maukmai, Mong Yawnghwe, Mong Sakoi, Mong Sam Kar, Mong Hsamongkham, Mong Lawk Sawk, Mong Pai, Keng Tawng, Keng Hkam and Keng Rom.
From Mong Kawng, Mong Yang, Waing Hso, Kat Hsa, the Shans moved northwards to the Hkamti Long area where they established the eight Mongs of the Khamti Shans: Lokhun, Mansi, Lon Kyein, Manse-Hkun, Mannu, Langdao, Mong Yak and Langnu. Moving to the west, they then occupied and established new Mongs like Hsawng Hsup, Sinkaling Hkamti, Mong Kale, Mong Leng (Mohling), Maing Kaing or Mong Kang, Hu-Kawng, Maw Leik, Mong Nyaung, Homalin, Phaungbyin, Hkam-Pat and Ta-Mu, between the Ayeyarwaddy and the Chindwin, along the Uyu river and even up to Manipur and Assam.

The Shan immigrants of north and northeastern Myanmar were recognized as the earliest branch of the Tai migration southwards, and they came to be known as Tai Long or Tai Yai, that is, "Great Tai". The later branch of the Tai migration to Laos and Thailand were known as Tai Noi or "Little Tai."

More migration of Shans into Myanmar took place when the powerful Shan kingdom of Mong Mao Long was established in the Mao valley. According to the Shan chronicles, the Mao political power reached its height in the 14th century, especially during the reign of the twin brothers Sao Hso Hkan Hpa and Sao Hsam Long Hpa.

All the principalities of northern and southern Shan State were united under the leadership of Sao Hso Hkan Hpa. He also extended his power to Laos, Cambodia and Thailand around about 1350. For the westward expansion, he assigned the task to his brother Sao Hsam Long Hpa who marched with his army to Mong Kawng which he easily annexed. Mong Kawng became the second capital next to Mong Mao. Making Mong Kawng his military base, Sao Hsam Long Hpa crossed the Ayarwaddy and Chindwin rivers to annex more new lands which included all the regions of the Kabaw valley, northern Rakhine, Manipur and Assam. New immigrants were settled into these newly conquered areas. Some of the followers who preferred to remain in Assam established their feudal communities along the Brahmaputra river and pledged their allegiance to the king of Tai Ahom. These Shans along the Brahmaputra river split in the course of time into Tai Ahom, Tai Aton, Tai Hkamyang, Tai Phake and Tai Tarong, to be later joined by Tai Hkamti from Myanmar. They survive to this day, although some have become Hinduized.

During the reign of Sao Hsam Long Hpa in Mong Kawng, several Baans and Mongs were established throughout northern Myanmar. Each Mong was under the Chief or Saohpa, and there were altogether ninety-nine Saohpas who who pledged their allegiance to Mong Kawng. The ethnic Tai people who came with Sao Hsam Long Hpa to northern Myanmar called themselves Tai Leng, but were called Shan-Myanmar by others. They became very Myanmarized. The Tai Leng settlements were scattered all over the present-day Kachin State, which at that time was Shan (see Appendix I). Those who settled at the northern tip of Myanmar around Putao came to be known as Tai Khamti. There were also Tai Long, Tai Mao and Tai Nu settlements in Bhamo, Mong Mauk, Waing Maw, Kat Kiao, Nam Ma, Nam Ti, Mong Kawng, Mong Yang and many other places in north and northeastern Myanmar. The Shans in northern Myanmar were skilled farmers. They brought along with them from Mong Mao Long the art of cultivation and turned the fertile lands of northern Myanmar into Na or rice fields. These Shan farmers concentrated their settlements in places with good soil and fresh water. In the Kyaukse area, they improved the land and irrigation system and turned the place into a rice bowl for Bagan. After the reign of King Narathihapate (1254-87) Bagan became very weak from the effects of the Mongol invasion. The Three Shan Brothers, Athinkaya, Yazathinkyan and Thihathu who controlled the economic base of Kyaukse area became very powerful and played a leading role in Bagan power politics. For two and a half centuries the Shans established their dynasties and made their power felt over Myanmar (see Appendix II).
In southern Myanmar there were several Shan settlements around Thaton, Mawlamyine, Madama and Bago.

As elsewhere in Myanmar, the local chiefs of southern Myanmar locked themselves into the game of power politics. The most prominent and active of these was a Shan local chief named Wareru. He was the son of a Shan immigrant to Thaton and was born in a---

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